Title: DETECTING INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN THE ATMOSPHERES OF EARTH-LIKE EXOPLANETS

Abstract

Detecting biosignatures, such as molecular oxygen in combination with a reducing gas, in the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets has been a major focus in the search for alien life. We point out that in addition to these generic indicators, anthropogenic pollution could be used as a novel biosignature for intelligent life. To this end, we identify pollutants in the Earth's atmosphere that have significant absorption features in the spectral range covered by the James Webb Space Telescope. We focus on tetrafluoromethane (CF{sub 4}) and trichlorofluoromethane (CCl{sub 3}F), which are the easiest to detect chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) produced by anthropogenic activity. We estimate that ∼1.2 days (∼1.7 days) of total integration time will be sufficient to detect or constrain the concentration of CCl{sub 3}F (CF{sub 4}) to ∼10 times the current terrestrial level.

@article{osti_22365223,
title = {DETECTING INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN THE ATMOSPHERES OF EARTH-LIKE EXOPLANETS},
author = {Lin, Henry W. and Abad, Gonzalo Gonzalez and Loeb, Abraham, E-mail: henrylin@college.harvard.edu, E-mail: ggonzalezabad@cfa.harvard.edu, E-mail: aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu},
abstractNote = {Detecting biosignatures, such as molecular oxygen in combination with a reducing gas, in the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets has been a major focus in the search for alien life. We point out that in addition to these generic indicators, anthropogenic pollution could be used as a novel biosignature for intelligent life. To this end, we identify pollutants in the Earth's atmosphere that have significant absorption features in the spectral range covered by the James Webb Space Telescope. We focus on tetrafluoromethane (CF{sub 4}) and trichlorofluoromethane (CCl{sub 3}F), which are the easiest to detect chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) produced by anthropogenic activity. We estimate that ∼1.2 days (∼1.7 days) of total integration time will be sufficient to detect or constrain the concentration of CCl{sub 3}F (CF{sub 4}) to ∼10 times the current terrestrial level.},
doi = {10.1088/2041-8205/792/1/L7},
journal = {Astrophysical Journal Letters},
number = 1,
volume = 792,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}

Characterizing the surfaces of rocky exoplanets via their scattered light will be an essential challenge in investigating their habitability and the possible existence of life on their surfaces. We present a reconstruction method for fractional areas of different surface types from the colors of an Earth-like exoplanet. We create mock light curves for Earth without clouds using empirical data. These light curves are fitted to an isotropic scattering model consisting of four surface types: ocean, soil, snow, and vegetation. In an idealized situation where the photometric errors are only photon shot noise, we are able to reproduce the fractional areasmore » of those components fairly well. The results offer some hope for detection of vegetation via the distinct spectral feature of photosynthesis on Earth, known as the red edge. In our reconstruction method, Rayleigh scattering due to the atmosphere plays an important role, and for terrestrial exoplanets with an atmosphere similar to our Earth, it is possible to estimate the presence of oceans and an atmosphere simultaneously.« less

As a test bed for future investigations of directly imaged terrestrial exoplanets, we present the recovery of the surface components of the Earth from multi-band diurnal light curves obtained with the EPOXI spacecraft. We find that the presence and longitudinal distribution of ocean, soil, and vegetation are reasonably well reproduced by fitting the observed color variations with a simplified model composed of a priori known albedo spectra of ocean, soil, vegetation, snow, and clouds. The effect of atmosphere, including clouds, on light scattered from surface components is modeled using a radiative transfer code. The required noise levels for future observationsmore » of exoplanets are also determined. Our model-dependent approach allows us to infer the presence of major elements of the planet (in the case of the Earth, clouds, and ocean) with observations having signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) {approx}> 10 in most cases and with high confidence if S/N {approx}> 20. In addition, S/N {approx}> 100 enables us to detect the presence of components other than ocean and clouds in a fairly model-independent way. Degradation of our inversion procedure produced by cloud cover is also quantified. While cloud cover significantly dilutes the magnitude of color variations compared with the cloudless case, the pattern of color changes remains. Therefore, the possibility of investigating surface features through light-curve fitting remains even for exoplanets with cloud cover similar to Earth's.« less

Scattered lights from terrestrial exoplanets provide valuable information about their planetary surface. Applying the surface reconstruction method proposed by Fujii et al. to both diurnal and annual variations of scattered light, we develop a reconstruction method of land distribution with both longitudinal and latitudinal resolutions. We find that one can recover a global map of an idealized Earth-like planet on the following assumptions: (1) cloudlessness, (2) a face-on circular orbit, (3) known surface types and their reflectance spectra, (4) lack of atmospheric absorption, (5) known rotation rate, (6) a static map, and (7) the absence of a moon. Using themore » dependence of light curves on planetary obliquity, we also show that the obliquity can be measured by adopting the {chi}{sup 2} minimization or the extended information criterion. We demonstrate the feasibility of our methodology by applying it to a multi-band photometry of a cloudless model Earth with future space missions such as the occulting ozone observatory (O3). We conclude that future space missions can estimate both the surface distribution and the obliquity at least for cloudless Earth-like planets within 5 pc.« less

We present the discovery of the Kepler-20 planetary system, which we initially identified through the detection of five distinct periodic transit signals in the Kepler light curve of the host star 2MASS J19104752+4220194. From high-resolution spectroscopy of the star, we find a stellar effective temperature T{sub eff} = 5455 {+-} 100 K, a metallicity of [Fe/H] = 0.01 {+-} 0.04, and a surface gravity of log g = 4.4 {+-} 0.1. We combine these estimates with an estimate of the stellar density derived from the transit light curves to deduce a stellar mass of M{sub *} = 0.912 {+-} 0.034more » M{sub Sun} and a stellar radius of R{sub *} = 0.944{sup +0.060}{sub -0.095} R{sub Sun }. For three of the transit signals, we demonstrate that our results strongly disfavor the possibility that these result from astrophysical false positives. We accomplish this by first identifying the subset of stellar blends that reproduce the precise shape of the light curve and then using the constraints on the presence of additional stars from high angular resolution imaging, photometric colors, and the absence of a secondary component in our spectroscopic observations. We conclude that the planetary scenario is more likely than that of an astrophysical false positive by a factor of 2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} (Kepler-20b), 1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} (Kepler-20c), and 1.1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 3} (Kepler-20d), sufficient to validate these objects as planetary companions. For Kepler-20c and Kepler-20d, the blend scenario is independently disfavored by the achromaticity of the transit: from Spitzer data gathered at 4.5 {mu}m, we infer a ratio of the planetary to stellar radii of 0.075 {+-} 0.015 (Kepler-20c) and 0.065 {+-} 0.011 (Kepler-20d), consistent with each of the depths measured in the Kepler optical bandpass. We determine the orbital periods and physical radii of the three confirmed planets to be 3.70 days and 1.91{sup +0.12}{sub -0.21} R{sub Circled-Plus} for Kepler-20b, 10.85 days and 3.07{sup +0.20}{sub -0.31} R{sub Circled-Plus} for Kepler-20c, and 77.61 days and 2.75{sup +0.17}{sub -0.30} R{sub Circled-Plus} for Kepler-20d. From multi-epoch radial velocities, we determine the masses of Kepler-20b and Kepler-20c to be 8.7 {+-} 2.2 M{sub Circled-Plus} and 16.1 {+-} 3.5 M{sub Circled-Plus }, respectively, and we place an upper limit on the mass of Kepler-20d of 20.1 M{sub Circled-Plus} (2{sigma}).« less

Planets in M dwarf stars' habitable zones are likely to be tidally locked with orbital periods of the order of tens of days. This means that the effects of rotation on atmospheric dynamics will be relatively weak, which requires small horizontal temperature gradients above the boundary layer of terrestrial atmospheres. An analytically solvable and dynamically consistent model for planetary climate with only three free parameters can be constructed by making the weak temperature gradient (WTG) approximation, which assumes temperatures are horizontally uniform aloft. The extreme numerical efficiency of a WTG model compared to a three-dimensional general circulation model (GCM) makesmore » it an optimal tool for Monte Carlo fits to observables over parameter space. Additionally, such low-order models are critical for developing physical intuition and coupling atmospheric dynamics to models of other components of planetary climate. The objective of this paper is to determine whether a WTG model provides an adequate approximation of the effect of atmospheric dynamics on quantities likely to be observed over the next decade. To do this, we first tune a WTG model to GCM output for an Earth-like tidally locked planet with a dry, 1 bar atmosphere, then generate and compare the expected phase curves of both models. We find that differences between the two models would be extremely difficult to detect from phase curves using the James Webb Space Telescope. This result demonstrates the usefulness of the WTG approximation when used in conjunction with GCMs as part of a modeling hierarchy to understand the climate of remote planets.« less